Optical networks, especially metropolitan area networks (MANs), are subject to numerous upgrades and reconfigurations because of the nature of MANs to provide dynamic connections in order to service growing and changing metropolitan areas.
Currently, a typical initialization of an optical network is performed manually. This process requires slow and time-consuming on site configuration involving costly personnel and, most significantly, it is prone to human errors.
Additionally, the initialization process requires knowledge of certain network parameters, such as span losses, which include component and fiber losses between optical amplifiers. To obtain these parameters, the initialization process may depend upon specification data from the network planning phase, which is frequently obsolete by the time of actual deployment. Differences between the specified values and actual values of the network parameters introduce errors into the initialization and operation of the optical network. Manual determination of the required network parameters could eliminate such errors, but would require on site assessment of the network making the process slow and costly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,347 to Beine et al. issued Oct. 16, 2001 and entitled “Optical Power Management in an Optical Network” discloses a system for managing an optical network such that selected power characteristics in the network are achieved by configuring optical amplifiers and/or variable optical attenuators within the nodes of a network. The focus of the system is to manage the power characteristics of the nodes of a protected network during switching events. To this end, Switching and Wavelength Manager Modules may provide switching and wavelength management information to each node, or the nodes may exchange information between themselves to distribute management information to perform the switching and maintain the power characteristics. The patent also discloses that as part of the managing process, a Power Management Module may determine power parameters at the input and output edges of a card and store these power parameters in a parameter table. Each of the modules described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,347 requires additional logic, communications connections, and memory for parameter tables. In summary, methods described in this patent are specific to protected networks, which undergo switching events that change the configuration of the optical network. As a result, they require re-configuring of nodes of the network until the optical network has the selected power characteristics, which is complicated and time-consuming.
Therefore, there is a need in industry for the development of alternative solutions for automatic initialization of an optical network that would be simple, expeditious, cost-efficient, and would provide required operating conditions for the optical network.